


The very first adventure

by Pizzama8



Series: The Generation of change [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Ashen Romance | Auspistice, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, F/F, F/M, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Gen, IN SPACE!, M/M, Multi, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Space Pirates, Spaceships, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-30
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-06 20:06:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1870704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pizzama8/pseuds/Pizzama8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The concept is simple; the quadrants weren't just an imperative part of troll society but also an integral part of its military. Hence it became a military standard for all ships to be comprised of almost exclusively friendship groups with the highest blood caste operating as captain. These are the adventures of a certain group of friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day one

The four quadrants; social constructs built up over years of evolution and necessity in response to the aggressive and openly hostile nature of trolls to other species and to each other. Naturally there were exceptions to this rule however by and large the troll race itself was lacking in what would usually be described as “tact”. In less generous terms; they were a species bred and hardened for war. There was no other way to put it; trolls were stronger, faster, arguably smarter and a hundred times more violent than any other known species bar one.

Their aggressive expansion and technology as well as militaristic ingenuity were matched by only one other species; humanity. The result was an uneasy alliance in which any and all aggressive acts between the two were regarded as open acts of war.

For you see whilst trolls might be more aggressive and physically more impressive than humans they lacked something that humanity had in abundance; bloody single mindedness and a refusal to accept defeat that bordered on insanity. It was joked amongst the many sentient species that if a human and troll were to butt heads the human would win simply because their body would carry on long after their brain had been mashed to a bloody pulp. Trolls were violent but they were also very keen on surviving their military encounters. Humanity on the other hand had a history of instilling an almost insane level of patriotism in all aspects of its military and it was known for human fighters to detonate themselves in order to take out their opponent with them.

At least that’s what the officer’s field manual had taught Feferi when she’d begun her lessons to become captain of her very own ship. Named the HICS Star Chaser their ship was an almost outdated mark four fighter whose role alternated between exploration, escort and ship to ship combat. It was relatively small by comparison to other space ships in the imperial fleet; having enough space to comfortably fit a crew of twelve and to uncomfortably fit a crew of thirty. There really wasn’t much space aboard the ship.

Armed with two standard issue missile launchers, two anti-boarding anti-personnel drones, two small rotatable Gatling turrets and two low intensity rotatable laser turrets; their small ship was outfitted well enough to cope with any plausible threat they might encounter during their tour of active duty. 

There were nine bedrooms; one captains suite, four officer rooms, one pilot room and three two-man ensign rooms. On top of this there was a canteen, a kitchen, five toilets (one in the captains room, two for the officers and two for the ensigns), eight showers (one for the captains room, four for the officers, three for the ensigns), a recreational room and a gene material repository. These by and large were considered the requisite for all military issued space craft in the royal fleet to cater to the needs of the crew and captain. 

There were a hundred other things that needed to be checked before the day was out but instead Feferi just palmed the list off to Eridan; as captain she could do that and given Eridans obsession with military figures she seriously doubted he would try to protest. True to expectations he simply huffed and went to go perform the routine pre-embark checks that all ships were to undergo before setting off on their first mission. She was practically buzzing with excitement at the thought.

She stepped on board the ship, her ship, for the first time and trailed her fingers gently along the metallic walls. They and the shield that any Alternian ship was outfitted with would be the only protection between them and the dark void of space. The average life expectancy for a captain was surprisingly lower than that of their crew; this being in part because it was tradition amongst the military forces of Alternia for the captain to never leave their vessel until they were decommissioned. Feferi when reading that particular passage had been sceptical at first but now she understood; this ship wasn’t just a ship. It would be their home, their protector, their everything for the next twenty sweeps at least and that was assuming that nothing happened to them in those sweeps. Of course they would have to stop and refuel and resupply every twelve months but otherwise they would almost never set foot outside the ship. 

This meant of course that in the best interest of the empire and to encourage reproductive productivity that all manned space ships were comprised of crews who knew each other from a very young age; practically every single crew in the Alternian navy save the special forces was comprised of friendship groups formed during the first few sweeps of a trolls life. This seemed to make sense to Feferi considering the insane culling policies of their current ruler and how any troll not contributing to the gene pool was removed from the living population of trolls. Each ship capable of holding a crew of six or more was also outfitted with a bucket drone; any crew members failing to meet their quota would find themselves dead. Which was why it was imperative that crews comprise of people who already knew each other.

Feferi walked down the hallway; her hand travelling behind her and her uniform; a set of fuschia captains garments that even had a little formal cape with her rank and chevrons sewn into the epaulets. Her fingers gently passed over the surface of the cool interior as she looked around in wonder. There were three levels to the classic mark four design; a bridge where the pilot, captain and first mate would be stationed, then below them the living quarters, armoury and the weapons control systems all together on the second floor. On the bottom level was the engine rooms and shield generator which would be in the capable hands of Equius their chief engineer and his two subordinates Tavros and Aradia. 

As she made her way through the second floor she passed the armoury; glancing briefly in to see Nepeta briefing Gamzee and Kanaya on where everything was. Like her, Nepeta had received an officer’s manual ahead of their ship assignment and it was her job to relay this information to those under her. The armoury weapon racks were stacked with twelve standard issue rifles, twelve standard issue sickles, twelve standard issue military combat suits, three specially outfitted combat exoskeleton suits and three specially outfitted hazardous environmental exoskeletons. The hazardous environmental exoskeletons (or HEE’s) were huge; each suit easily twice the size of its designated user. They were custom built to fit the security contingent aboard any ship and looked closer to robots than actual suits; they were self-sealing, bullet proof, explosive resistant, completely sealed and contained their own oxygen supply. These features along with magnetic gloves and boots, shoulder mounted turrets and a metal shield that could withstand high powered armour piercing rounds made it an almost unstoppable infantry weapon. Whoever was wearing it would be close to invincible in it; nothing short of a tank would stop them. All three of the suits stood ominously silent at the back of the armoury and Feferi moved on quickly.

She found her way to the stairs that would take her up to the bridge; she ascended them two at a time and took in her command centre with eager eyes. The bridge was bare save a pod in the centre of the room where Sollux would rest and guide the ship using his psionics. It was rare for a troll crew to have someone of his power aboard their ship and it presented them with an unparalleled advantage in combat. She was sure that under his talented control the ship would come to no harm. 

She walked over past the pod and to two throne like chairs that had been hidden from her view. Each one had a series of buttons and consoles fixed into the arm rests; so that in the event that something were to happen to Sollux she would be able to take direct control of the ship. However she had barely passed that portion of her training sim and was hesitant to take any control of the ship whatsoever from Sollux who himself had been considered a prodigy by the other trolls in his class.

She eased herself into the seat and let out a little happy sigh and then a squeal of happiness. She and the rest of her crew had been training for nearly a sweep for this moment and it was almost too much for her to take in. In less than an hour she’d be setting off with her friends into space to explore and expand the empire to every corner of the universe.

Her crew, including herself, consisted of twelve trolls; five officers, a pilot and six ensigns. She was the captain as befit her blood colour and Eridan her first mate, as befit his. However their three officers were Nepeta who had received distinctions in her combat, tactics and stealth training, Terezi who despite being blind had somehow managed to outshoot pretty much everyone who had gone against her during their ship-to-ship combat training and Equius who many regarded as the most talented engineer the empire had ever seen and finally there was Sollux their pilot. 

Amongst the remaining six; Karkat and Vriska were the other gunners under Terezi’s command much to Karkats vexation. Nepeta led Kanaya and Gamzee in the security contingent aboard the ship; they dealt with any threats that took something a little more personal than a missile or laser blast from a ship. Kanaya also doubled as the crew’s surgeon; the medical bay being located adjacent to the armoury. Finally that left Equius in charge of Aradia and Tavros; both of which were also under his tutelage at the same time. He had deemed the Imperial Fleets education to be painfully lacking and intended to teach them everything he knew.

It was an interesting crew; not many crews could brag at having the full hemospectrum aboard their ship. From Feferi’s fuchsia to Karkat and Aradia’s rust brown blood their small motley managed to represent pretty much every caste of troll across the spectrum. Of course one thing that they could claim that no other crew could was that they had a mutant aboard; despite being registered as having a rust brown blood colour the same as Aradia’s Karkat was in fact sporting a colour much closer to the human’s red than to anything a troll ever had. But that was a secret well-kept and hidden away from culling drones and imperial mandate.

She rose from her seat and began to pace; lost in thought. Their first mission was a simple one; make their way to the edge of imperial space and push further, mapping all new planets and expanding the less than benevolent reign of the empire as well as patrol along the human/troll border and hunt for pirates or illegal slavers.

She simply couldn’t wait to be off; the first few months would be spent travelling straight out to the empires border and then after that it was nothing but adventure! Just like in the stories she’d read as a child. She was so lost in fantasy that she didn’t hear when Sollux and Eridan entered the room both in their respective uniforms. They watched her grinning and waiting for her patiently. Finally she looked up and beamed at the two of them; they looked rather impressive in their uniforms and she had to admit they suited them. 

“Ready to embark captain?”

Sollux asked, climbing into the pilots pod and getting comfortable as the pods lid closed. Feferi turned to Eridan expectantly. “We’re leaving ahead of schedule; is everyone aboard? Are all of those boring details dealt with?”

He nodded; taking his seat in the first mates position.

“Yes ma’m, evveyone’s aboard and wwaiting on you. Evverything is buckled down and all the ammunition, food and other essentials are on board. Wwe’re wwaiting on you Fef.”

She nodded and sat down in her captain’s seat, drumming her fingers against the tip of the arm rest before pushing a button and speaking loud and clear.

“Ladies, Gentlemen the H-I-C-S Star Chaser is about to make its maiden voyage. This is it guys; we’re making this happen. Sollux take us off.”

With a nod and a shuddering start the engines of the space ship roared to life and the entire craft pushed forward against the planets gravitational pull. It flew out from its hanger and up into the air; barrelling through Alternia’s atmosphere and out into the grand expanse of space. As the ship took off in the direction of the closest border and last known location of anything worth mentioning an excited squeal could be heard coming from the bridge.

“OH MY COD THIS IS SO AWESOME!”


	2. Three weeks in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat prepares a feast as they finally cross the border into uncharted territory.

It took them exactly three weeks to reach the edge of troll space; Feferi knew this because she had rather impatiently been counting the days until their space adventure started. Of course Eridan had tried explaining to her that there really wasn’t any adventure to be expected because they were exploring space, the majority of which was empty. However Feferi had maintained her optimistic outlook that eventually something would happen. Something had to happen after all, they couldn’t just fly through space and never encounter anything interesting right?

Many of the crew; particularly Karkat and surprisingly Equius were simply happy to have nothing happen to them. Something happening would most likely result in some kind of conflict and therefore put everyone involved in danger. Feferi however was bored thoroughly; she’d begun getting restless and found herself getting increasingly stir crazy. She longed for unknown planets; for grand space battles with pirates and slavers, of liberating new civilisations and making first contact with whole new species! This was not what she’d been drafted for and she was starting to get fed up with it.

The crew had found ways to entertain themselves; for example Equius spent the majority of his time teaching Aradia and Tavros as much about engines, shield generators and the gravity generator as he could as well as a few impromptu lessons on how to augment and adjust the HEE’s used by the security team of their crew. Vriska and Terezi spent their time messing with Karkat, either in the form of practical jokes in the gunners theatre or deliberately saying things that would annoy, irritate or otherwise infuriate Karkat. Getting a rise out of him was always extremely funny to them.

Kanaya spent a large section of her time getting their medical bay in order; organising the medical resources and equipment until she was satisfied that everything was in order and to her liking. Gamzee spent most of his time spacing out, talking to Tavros or polishing and maintaining the combat suits to such a high degree that Nepeta could see her own reflection in the visors. This consequently left their officer with nothing to do and she either spent her time with her moirail who was almost always instructing his subordinates in engineering or hanging out with the crews gunners; Vriska, Terezi and Karkat.

Karkat by and large cooked for the crew; having requisition the position for himself because he didn’t trust anyone else to ration properly or know how to cook a decent nutritional meal. Of course Terezi would occasionally come down to annoy him and interrupt his “process” which mostly involved him standing around whilst the meal cooked in the oven. Nepeta would usually join him to lend a second set of hands to the affair but considering her idea of a good meal was eating the heart from a fresh kill he made sure that they only ever cooked his recipes; Nepeta didn’t really care, it made a nice change from the monotony of standing around and trying to look intimidating to no one in particular.

Once the meal was finished Karkat would then send a message up to Feferi who would make a ship wide announcement. She had made the decision that they would eat all of their meals together; disguising it by saying that it was to improve crew cohesion and help form bonds between crewmates. However her true motivation was simply that being stuck on the bridge with Sollux and Eridan was enough to make anyone want to shoot themselves. It was fortunate that the ship had auto-pilot; a fact that they’d discovered two days into the journey by Feferi mindlessly tapping buttons on her captains arm rest.

On the third week of their journey and upon passing the border of Alternian controlled space Feferi had decided that they should celebrate the momentous (if somewhat understated) event. Of course this meant that Karkat had spent the better part of the day in the kitchen cooking up a feast with Nepeta dropping in occasionally to lend a hand and Terezi to throw him off and get in his way. Eventually it got so bad that he’d requested that Vriska do something to stop her from coming down to the kitchen.

As he messed about in the kitchen preparing the celebratory feast he couldn’t help but complain to himself. To him this was just a massive waste of both rations and time but who was he to second guess their captain as well as an imperial heiress? It was a little difficult however to cater to the needs of eleven over people besides yourself, most of which had different tastes and making sure there was something for everyone was a nightmare that pushed his skills and the kitchen to the very limit.

He pulled a large bird of debateable species from the oven and began to neatly carve it into equal slices. It wasn’t that he was a big fan of cooking he just didn’t appreciate people criticising it so he did his utmost to ensure that the food he cooked was of the highest possible quality. Once the bird was finished he laid the now carved meat on a large plate and placed it on a big table in the canteen. He returned to the kitchen to attend to the other prepared food; pseudo vegetables, artificially grown oink-beast meat, pastries whose expiration date was probably last year; the food issued by the military sucked and he had made a mental note to requisition funds to buy either fresh or frankly natural food rather than the synthetic crap that they got given for free. He had decided to go for something resembling a traditional twelfth perigee’s eve dinner; it was the only style of feast he knew and he wasn’t about to start experimenting because that would suggest he actually enjoyed his time in the kitchen. Which he did but he didn’t want the others knowing it.

As the last of the meal was set out Nepeta came in and smiled at him.

“Need a hand Karcat?”

“Yeah, if you could set out the plates that would be great. I’ll tell Feferi that foods done.”

He walked over to a small speaker on the wall and pressed a button next to it.

“Foods up glorious leader, tell the rest of the assholes that they can come down and eat now.”

“There’s no need for the attitude Karcrab!”

“Considering almost no one refers to me by my actual fucking name I feel I can have as much attitude as I like heiress now hurry up and tell the others before the food gets cold.”

“Don’t call me heiress!”

“Don’t call me Karcrab!”

“But you love that nickname!”

“We’re not having this fucking argument, dinners ready so tell the others.”

With that he released the button and scowled before heading back into the kitchen and putting all the dirty pots and pans into a sink and scowled; it was going to take an hour at least to get everything cleaned. He turned and saw Nepeta standing in the door way grinning at him.

“What?”

“Nothing, food smells delicious by the way but I feel sorry for whoever has to clean all of those pots and pans and not to mention the plates and stuff.”

“Yeah well rest assured he feels sorry for himself as well.”

“Mew know it wouldn’t kill mew to ask for help every once in a while, I wouldn’t mind helping you clean.”

He shrugged dismissively and stepped past her and back into the canteen; admiring his handiwork before his frankly inconsiderate friends tore into it and left nothing but scraps. She stood next to him, her hand half an inch from his but never touching it. He smirked and moved his hands to his hips and turned to her.

“I have to say my cooking skills are pretty fucking superb; don’t you agree?”

She nodded, giggling and grinning at him.

“Well that’s why we let mew cook for us! I mean if mew were bad at cooking we would’ve just made someone else do it.”

He shrugged and grinned back at her. 

“I guess you’re right.”

“Aww are you guys having a moment?”

Terezi said sarcastically from behind them. Karkat turned and scowled at her angrily, annoyed that his self-appraisal had been interrupted by her.

“Don’t be silly Purrezi, we’re just talking about Karcats wonderful cooking!”

She sniffed and cackled, walking past and nudging Karkat rather roughly with her elbow as she did so and taking her seat down at the table.

“Smells awful Karkles but I guess I’ll live.”

“Fuck you too.”

“That’s “fuck you too sir.” Karkles, don’t make me punish you for being insubordinate.”

“Fuck you too SIR.”

He spat the last word out just as Eridan, Feferi and Sollux entered the room and sitting down. Feferi was overly excited as usual. They were followed by Equius, Kanaya and Gamzee and a grease covered Aradia.

“Whoa what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Going to eat dinner with my friends.”

“I’m not letting your filthy fucking hands near any of my food, go and wash.”

“Are you being serious?”

“Fuck yes. You’re covered in grease, go and wash. Everyone else had the decency to do it.”

“Well none of them have been working in the engine room all day.”

He looked around theatrically and then pat down his pockets before turning to her again.

“Sorry I think you might have mistaken me for someone who gives a fuck, a common mistake. Go clean your fucking hands.”

She sighed in exasperation and then turned and left, pushing angrily past Vriska and Tavros. Vriska looked after Aradia and then back to Karkat a little confused.

“What was that all about?”

“You saw that state of her, everyone else is clean even Tavros and Equius. She probably did it just to get a rise out of me.”

“You’re way too paranoid Karkat.”

“Whatever, sit down and eat your fucking food Serket.”

She rolled her eyes but grinned and took her seat anyway. Thanking Karkat for the food. They all began to dig in hungrily. He snapped his fingers suddenly as something came to him and went back into the kitchen and returned with a bottle of wine and twelve glasses which Nepeta hurriedly took from him before he dropped them.

She began to hand out the glasses to them and Karkat filled them a quarter full with the drink, leaving his glass for last to ensure that everyone had enough. Aradia arrived just as he finished pouring the wine and Feferi called for a toast. She hurriedly took her position next to Sollux, her hair dripping wet where she’d failed to dry it quickly with a towel. 

Feferi stood; grinning happily at her crew with her glass raised, everyone else joined her and their babbling stopped.

“From this point onwards we make our own adventure! From now on is uncharted territory, everything we encounter, every planet or civilisation, hasn’t been encountered by any Alternian service yet! So here’s to us, the greatest crew in Alternian history.”

The others cheered and they all drank together before sitting down and devouring the feast Karkat had prepared for them.


	3. Blue Ribbun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally the crew of the HICS Star Chaser get to experience their first dog fight in space.

Feferi stared perplexedly at the ship in front of them; it was a classic mark four fighter just like theirs however the imperial emblem had been removed and replaced with a set of crossbones with a blue ribbon tying them together. A pirate yes, but not one that was particularly notorious or powerful for that matter. She sighed, they’d just stumbled upon these fools and now she had to make the decision as to what to do with them.

“Open a communication channel, lets at least give them the chance to surrender.”

“Fef they’ll just be executed anyway.”

“I know but they might have slaves aboard, in which case I want to save as many people as I can Eridan troll or otherwise. Open a communication channel.”

With a sigh Eridan tapped a series of buttons on his first mates arm rest and a window opened up in front of him; it was pale blue with the words “Attempting communication” in white lettering on the front. They waited for a very tense ten seconds before the captain of the pirate ship responded. They were a female blue blood, that much Feferi could tell from glancing at them. She sighed and stood up.

“My name is captain Feferi Peixies of the H-I-C-S Star Chaser; by imperial mandate I order you to identify yourself and to explain your desecration of an official naval vessel.”

“Wow, talk about having a rod up your ass. I’m captain Ribbun if you must know and if I recall correctly Peixies are the current ruling family aren’t they?”

“Yes now answer my initial question; why did you desecrate an imperial navy vessel.”

Feferi scowled, this woman was almost painfully insolent. Yes Feferi was young but that gave her no right to talk down to her. Her training had been intense so she knew exactly how to handle herself in a fight.

“If you’re talking about the change in colour scheme it’s because I was dishonourably discharged. They let me keep the ship as a reward for years of service.”

“What were you discharged for?”

“What is this twenty fucking questions? For war crimes. If you want examples I can go into detail but I doubt your royal stomach could handle it.”

Her scowl darkened and she bit back a hostile retort. She could be telling the truth and whilst the markings were obviously of pirate origin she hadn’t actually caught them in the act of committing a crime and so couldn’t arrest them. However she could provoke them into attacking first.

“Try me, I seriously doubt a small time pirate like yourself has done anything beyond petty theft in their entire lives.”

“Well shall we start with the murder of innocent civilians during military conflicts and move on from there? There’s rape, slavery, abduction, heinous use of military ordnance, failure to execute orders and a rather colourful paedophilia charge that your idiot of a broodmate tried to label me with.”

“You’ve met Meenah?”

“Yeah, she was a hell of a lot more interesting than you. Didn’t even bother with all this jargon, just opened fire on me straight away.”

Unbeknownst to Feferi whilst she talked, Ribbun’s crew began preparations for combat. Of course it was standard naval procedure to have weapons primed at all times when encountering another ship so Feferi’s own weapons were more than ready to retaliate after an unfortunate warm up period.

“I’m sure, I’m also positive you’re bullshitting half of your claims. You don’t seem to strike me as being creative enough to disobey orders; what happened did you just screw up a mission? I bet it was something simple.”

A group of four blue bloods in white combat exoskeletons with a blue ribbon dashed across the front of the suit moved down two flights of stairs into a retrofitted short range teleporter. It took three seconds to move them from their stationary ship to Feferi’s which instantly set off intruder alert alarms all over their ship. Feferi glanced over her shoulder and sighed before turning back to face Ribbun who was beaming rather proudly at her little trick.

“Do you have any slaves on board your ship?”

“Huh?”

“Slaves you idiot, do you have any slaves?”

She was starting to lose her patience with the pirate.

“No, got no need for them.”

“Well that makes things simpler.”

She then sat back down in her captains chair and pushed a button, speaking clearly into the arm rest.

“Terezi I’d be greatful if you could target this idiots weapons and then take out her engines. I’m not quite done negotiating with her but she’s being really very unco-coperative.”

There was a cackle down the mic followed by a “Yes captain.” Feferi nodded and then turned back to the screen.

“Anything else? I’m guessing that considering you teleported your men aboard my ship you don’t actually have any weapon modules on yours. Otherwise you would have just blasted us the moment we came into view.”

“You’d be guessing right, you’re awfully calm for someone who was just successfully boarded.”

She shrugged, leaning forward in her seat and grinning.

“How well trained are your pirates? I hope they’re not just your typical rabble because I’ve got a very talented security team who needed some experience.”

The pirate captain laughed and nodded. “I admit you’re more interesting than I first pegged you for, I’ve never had a heiress before.”

As the conversation continued between the two captains their respective combat teams had begun to move against each other. The invaders moved quickly through the halwayls; two moving towards engineering and the gunners room whilst two moved towards the bridge. Meanwhile Kanaya and Gamzee had left the armoury in their military issue equipment and made slow progress towards the bridge to intercept the pirates and Nepeta made her way down towards the gunners area.

As they approached the stairs leading up to the bridge Gamzee and Kanaya stopped and took up kneeling positions at the bend in the corridor and aimed their rifles towards the other side and waited; sure enough one of the pirates stepped into view and they unleashed a burst of gunfire; three shots rebounded off the metallic armour on the exoskeleton but for each one that missed three more found their way between the segmented steel ridges and through the sturdy fabric. The first pirate collapsed back against the wall behind them; raising their gun and firing wildly in front of them but hitting nothing except the walls. As they desperately gasped for breath their friend rounded the corner and crouched, they fired down the hallway towards Kanaya and Gamzee’s position.

The two ducked and the bullets struck the wall next to them, one of them ricocheting and struck Kanaya in the leg. Thankfully the standard issue combat exoskeletons of the military were a little bit stronger than those that the pirates were using and the fabric absorbed the blunt of the impact, leaving her with nothing more than a nasty bruise. She scowled and as soon as the fire stopped she moved from her cover; she advanced down the hallway with Gamzee keeping a watchful eye, firing whenever the pirate so much as poked their head around the corner. She stepped into the staircase leading up to the bridge and now in a better position and with a better angle to fire upon the intruder from, Kanaya and Gamzee fired simultaneously, preventing their would be hijacker from advancing any further.

Meanwhile Nepeta had managed to position herself directly behind the two pirates; she advanced on them slowly, her feet not making a sound as she did so. This was why she had received top marks; she managed to move completely silent despite wearing a suit that weighed half her weight and was covered in metallic ridges and plating for protection. She watched the two of them; the insides of her helmet analysing them and their movements through the advanced computing modules available. It also provided her with a status report of her body and any injuries she might have sustained; it was a neat little thing and reminded her of a heads up display from a video game.

She was barely a step behind them when they noticed her, she moved quickly bringing the butt of her rifle up across the helmet of the first pirate; there was an audible crack as something inside the helmet broke and the pirate slumped down against the floor. She then dropped the rifle and dashed forward; knocking the rifle of the second pirate away from her and bringing her knee up into the abdomen. Usually physical combat like this didn’t work against those in combat exoskeletons however the inbuilt miniature thrusters in the sole of her boot gave her just that little bit more oomph to her kick.

Said oomph sent the pirate flying up into the ceiling and crumbling in a broken mess on the floor. She looked up and went a little pale when she realised that she had managed to dent the roof as well as break every bone in the pirates body. The miniature thrusters were meant for travel in space or against extreme gravity, not inside a space ship it seemed. Suddenly the leg she’d used to kick them gave out and she collapsed to the floor in pain; quickly scanning her status updater not only had the kick dented the ceiling and broken the pirate but it had also broken her leg from the force of the impact. She groaned; this was going to be so embarrassing.

Fighting in such close quarters using standard infantry tactics was difficult; especially when there’s only one of you. Which is why the pirate decided to retreat, activating a localised teleporter in his suit to transport him back to his own ship. Gamzee and Kanaya advanced quickly; making sure that the initially wounded pirate was really dead and moving quickly through the ships interior to check for any resistance.

They found Nepeta waiting patiently and with her leg jutting out at a rather odd angle. She gave them a weak smile.

“The thing is…”

Ribbun was furious and embarrassed when her boarding party or rather what remained of it returned.

“It appears your guys really were nothing more than simple thugs. Are you going to surrender or do we have to destroy you?”

The pirate captain cursed and then hit a button on her console, there was a cacophony of noise as different scanners in the bridge sounded alarms and Feferi quickly hit the ship announcement system button on her own chair. Her voice rang clear and loud throughout their vessel.

“Brace yourselves everyone; an illegal FTL drive is about to go off.”

Just as Karkat, Vriska and Terezi had locked on to their targets the pirate ship shot forward impossibly fast; sending a wave of electromagnetic energy that hit their ship like a brick wall. The result was a series of damaged electrical equipment and loss of their gravity generator (but thankfully not their life support.) 

Feferi crossed her arms in agitation, grumbling to herself whilst she floated in mid-air.

“It’s not fair Eridan we had her fair and square!”

“I knoww Fef.”

“That was just cheating! Not to mention she probably splattered her poor crew. FTL drives are such a bugger if you don’t take the proper precautions. “

“I knoww Fef.”

“Do we have a damage report from Equius yet?”

“It’s only been thirty seconds, Christ Feferi learn some glubbing patience.”

She sighed and nodded; looking over at Eridan with an apologetic smile.

“I’m sorry, it’s just the first action we get in weeks and it ends like this. It’s going to take hours of work to get all the systems back online. Speaking of which how’s our Oxygen?”

“Fine; the life support systems are protected wwith their own sub shield remember? Besides if there wwas something wwrong with it Equius would be straight on it.”

She nodded and looked around the bridge; the only one not floating about was Sollux because he was fully strapped into his pilots pod. She turned back to Eridan.

“So… what now?”


	4. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the first conflict.

The gravity was returned to their ship a few hours later by Equius’s diligent work. He’d spent the majority of the time grappling with his engineer boots which had a gravity function that either righted a person or sent them flying off to a surface they did not want to be attached to. This happened at least three times and as a result Equius now had several bruises along the left side of his body and one large one on his forehead which Tavros and Aradia tried desperately not to look at and snigger.

It took the three of them four hours to restore the gravity generator; the electromagnetic blast had not only fried the circuitry but also knocked several important components within the generator out of position. They’d all been electrocuted at least once by the end of the day and all of them were fed up with the bloody thing. When power was finally restored to the device it was sudden and when the gravity came back few people were expecting it. 

Which is why Nepeta screamed in pain. A broken leg was not a fun thing to land on especially when beforehand you were floating painlessly in the air. Kanaya lifted her gently and placed her on the medical bed. She shifted uncomfortably in the bed as Kanaya slowly undressed her to get a look at her injury. On the surface there was only some serious bruising but as Kanaya began to prod and move the leg it became clear that their equivalent of the Tibia was shattered. She pulled over a nearby handheld screen and hung it over Nepeta’s leg, slowly scanning down it until she located the break that confirmed her suspicions.

“It’s going to take three weeks at least to heal, and then another two of physiotherapy. You’re lucky that trolls are so durable to be honest, if you were human the recovery process would be significantly longer.

Nepeta pouted, crossing her arms angrily.

“It’s still a month and a week.”

“I know dear, but to be honest you kind of asked for it. You knew the power those thrusters had and you still used them to kick a troll into the ceiling. Equius wasn’t pleased when he saw it.”

“I know…”

The sound of approaching foot steps drew both their attention to the door to the infirmary; Karkat was standing there with a concerned expression.

“How are you?”

Nepeta gave him a weak smile and shrugged.

“Broke my leg, going to take a month and a bit to heal. Three weeks of a cast and not using it and then another two of doing stupid exercises.”

He nodded and sat down beside her, Kanaya promptly took that as an opportunity to begin making the cast. Nepeta blushed faintly when she realised that she was pretty much laying in her underwear in front of Kakart, but the embarrassment turned to a little bit of annoyance when he didn’t so much as attempt to steal a glance. Was her almost naked body not good enough for him to ogle?  
“What?”

“Huh?”

“You’re giving me a funny look.”

“Oh, uhm, nothing it’s just… I’m kind of in my underwear at the moment.”

“I know.”

“You didn’t seem to have noticed.”

“I was trying to ignore it, I felt it was inappropriate to take advantage of my injured friend like that.”

She blushed faintly and rolled her eyes but then grinned at him. 

“Doesn’t Terezi need you for something?”

“We’re not really in combat at the moment, and it’s like a ten second walk from here to the gunners booth. If anything does happen I can be at my post in moments, besides your leg is broken and you’re going to be bedridden for a while so you could probably do with the company.”

She giggled and hugged him suddenly, causing him to grin sheepishly at her.

“Mew are way too sweet Karcat, although seriously I’d prefer it if mew waited until I had some clothes on.”

He blushed deeply and nodded, standing up and leaving the room.

“Come back in an hour Karkat and she’ll be ready to go to her room.” Kanaya called after him, turning to Nepeta with a smirk.

“You shouldn’t tease him so much dear.”

“I’ll stop teasing when he grows a pair and actually asks me.”

“Why don’t you ask him?”

She hesitated but then looked away, she liked to act confident but the truth was she was still worried that his friendliness was just that. Sometimes she really hated his white knight routine because it made it impossible to tell when he was attempting to flirt or just being a good friend. Kanaya simply shook her head in resignation.

“He won’t take the first step Nepeta, unfortunately he’s a bit of a coward when it comes to quadrants. I was after all the one who initiated our moiraillegience.”

Feferi was sat rather glumly in her captain’s seat whilst Eridan ran several scans of the ship to make sure everything was in order before they took off again. She was a little bitter that the pirate captain had escaped her, and that the fight had been over so quickly. She had bragged about her crew being extremely talented but she was a little unhappy that the only excitement she’d experienced in the last few weeks had been concluded so quickly and easily.

“If every single thing we come across is going to end like that this is going to be the most boring adventure in the history of the empire!”

“Fef, no offence but wwould you grow up a little? This is wwhat real space travel is like, a wwhole bunch of nothing for a lot of the time and only broken up by the occasional encounter. Even then since space tech is so advanced fights don’t last that long if it’s only between two ships.”

Feferi huffed but fell silent, realising that Eridan had a point.

“Hate to admit it Fef but hipthter boy hath a point.”

“Shut up Sollux.”

Was all Feferi said, resigning herself to sulking for the rest of the day. As the scans finished and Eridan was satisfied that the ship wasn’t about to explode the moment they started the engines he pressed a button and looked over at Sollux.

“Take us a way lowblood.”

“Thcrew you too Eridan.”

With that the ship took off again, travelling into the vast emptiness that was space.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey; this work is going to be my primary focus for pretty much as long as it takes to finish. Each individual work will be updated daily (as best as I can) and there will be a week between the end of each work so that I can plan out the next one. I have no idea how long this series is going to be but anticipate it to be LONG. I will continue to update Recovery on the fly when I have free time but considering that it's not so much got an end goal as it's just a series of events that happen the phrase "updating on the fly" is going to be the present and future state of it.
> 
> I will also be working with a friend of mine; they will be producing drawings and other artistic pieces regarding this work. These will include the uniforms, HEE's and other stuff to do with the work. We are also in the process of setting up a separate blog to answer questions and post the art which will probably be available either by the end of this work or at the start of the next. 
> 
> That's pretty much everything yep, I apologise for the exposition heavy first chapter but you gotta have context for this thing and I thought this was the best way to deliver that context. All criticism is welcome and the art work will be up as soon as possible along with the blog.


End file.
